High doses of fish oil might help healing after heart attack
Heart attack patients who took high doses of fish oil supplements for six months showed improved heart function and less scarring, researchers report.
It is not yet precisely known how the large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in these supplements might have helped the healing process, but the results are encouraging, said study senior author Dr. Raymond Kwong. He is director of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston.
In his study, 360 heart attack survivors were followed for six months. Half of them were given 4 grams of omega-3 fatty acid supplements daily for six months, while the other half were given placebo pills. A doctor might typically prescribe 1 to 2 grams of omega-3 fatty acid supplements a day if a patient has high triglyceride levels (a type of blood fat), Kwong added. Using MRIs of the heart, the researchers found there was a 6 percent improvement in both heart function and scarring in undamaged parts of the organ among patients who took 4 grams of omega-3 fatty acids daily.
What we need to study going forward is whether higher doses of omega-3 can reduce mortality rates. Can we do better than produce 6 percent heart improvement and 6 percent less scarring? Kwong asked.
Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said prior studies where lower doses of omega-3 fatty acids were given after heart attacks had yielded mixed results. And how omega-3 fatty acids might improve a patients heart health has been the subject of much debate, he added.
The value of the study suggests that fish oil supplementation at the 4-gram daily dose may help with the heart healing process after a heart attack, and suggests that further studies are warranted, Fonarow said.
HealthDay
